picture from inmagine
I usually make it a point to avoid tricky company privacy laws by not blogging about work at all, which really explains why I haven't been blogging very much as work has become an extremely huge part of my life. I've always feared that I like the vagabond pleasures of life a tad too much to actually commit to a full-time job. I never expected I would swing the other way and morph into, quite possibly, a workaholic.
Anyway, I thought I'd blog about a recent lunch I had with A and J, since it is technically non-work related. We were supposed to be headed off to a hilltop cafe that serves the best chocolate cookies, but fate (and the knowledge that the seafood was flown in from the Tsukiji fish market that morning), intervened and we found ourseleves seated at a table in Tatsuya with elegant kimono-clad waitstaff bustling about. Tatsuya, an independent Japanese restaurant located at Goodwood Park Hotel, was my lesson in proper Japanese dining and my one-way ticket to sashimi heaven.
Hokkaido crab, delicately sweet. Sea urchin (uni gunkan) maki - who would have thought the black spiny facade of the sea urchin would belie its sunset-yellow, melt-in-the-mouth texture? Sweet shrimp (ama ebi) nigiri-zushi, with seriously sweet shrimps (oddly but nicely starchy) twice the size of those I've seen. Arkshell (akagai) nigiri-zushi, each bite releasing the subtle flavors of the sea. Then J and I got to compare what A describes as "fat and fatter" - the chutoro (fatty tuna belly) and the otoro (fattiest portion of the tuna found on its underside). The entire meal was accompanied with bites of dried pufferfish, which tastes almost like a less oily but equally addictive bak gwa alternative.
The meal, which I believe cost A three arms and three legs, has possibly turned me into a sashimi snob. Can I ever step foot into another sushi bar without reminiscing lunch?
And is it any wonder that I love the job that has opened up a whole new world of gastronomic opportunities before my very eyes? My taste buds have been exposed to a whole new palette of sensations in these few months, and I've had the chance to dine at places I would otherwise have to pay an arm and a leg for (and because of that I would have been quick to dismiss as snooty).
I really do feel like Alice in Wonderland, albeit lost in a world of prancing Wagyu beef steaks and o-toro sashimi dancing on chopsticks instead of talking animals.
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